Review

Reviewed Work(s): Gottfried Semper and the Problem of Historicism by Mari Hvattum
Review by: Caroline Van Eck
Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , Mar., 2006, Vol. 65, No. 1
(Mar., 2006), pp. 136-139
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural
Historians

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Nineteenth-Century architecture. The question to which the work mound, the woven enclosure, and
entire book is devoted is this: What is the wooden roof.
Architecture and Theory
the connection between Semper's his Part two, "Practical Aesthetics,"
torical method, his attempts to write a analyzes how this view associating the
universal history of architecture that beginnings of human architecture with
Mari Hvattum those of architecture can be connected
would demonstrate ad oculos, in purely
Gottfried Semper and the Problem to the other part of Semper's project,
visual terms, the development of the arts
of Historicism
and crafts and establish the underlying which was to formulate a scientific
Cambridge, England, and New York: Cam principles determining that develop method of design, or in his words, a
bridge University Press, 2004, xiii + 274 pp., "practical aesthetic." Reacting strongly
ment, and his lifelong concern with for
50 b/w illus. $85, ISBN 0-521-82163-0
mulating a theory of design, what he against the stylistic dilemmas of his time,
called at times a "topics or method of he set out to trace not only the history
In the past decade, two fundamental Invention," or a "practical aesthetics"? of individual works of art?Assyrian
studies of Gottfried Semper's life and What, in other words, are the principles stools, Egyptian and Greek vases and
work have appeared. One is Harry Mall of design in an age of historicism? sculpture, or nineteenth-century ear
grave's Gottfried Semper: Architect of the The book is divided into three rings?but above all the forces that
Nineteenth Century (New Haven, 1996). parts. Part one, "Towards a Poetics of guided the birth and development of art,
The other is the book under review, Architecture," discusses Semper's search whether they were historical, material,
Mari Hvattum's Gottfried Semper and the for a historical method. It shows that he or spiritual. The result would be a sys
Problem of Historicism. Whereas Mall broke with the neoclassical tradition of tematic knowledge of the development
grave's book is an intellectual and artistic considering the petite cabane rustique, that of art that could also serve as a guide for
biography in which representation is the is, a building, as the origin of architec the present-day designer. Semper set out
key issue in the examinaton of Semper's ture, and instead located its genesis in to discover, as Hvattum puts it, "the for
work and thought, Hvattum's volume is the human mind: in the human desire mal laws and logic noticeable in the cre
a systematic philosophical analysis of his for ritual that represents the order prim ation of artistic works . . . , to
lifelong ambition to formulate both a itive man perceived in, or projected comprehend the laws of beauty in gen
global history of architecture and a the onto, his surroundings. By the same eral and artistic beauty in particular by a
ory of design, or what he himself called purely empirical method" (92). He iden
token, architectural history for Semper
a "practical aesthetics." Mallgrave's book was no longer, as it had been, for tified three forces or Gestaltungsmo
established Friedrich Nietzsche as the
instance, in the teaching of the ?cole des mente?symmetry, proportionality, and
main philosophical presence in Semper's Beaux-Arts, the story of how classical directionality?together with something
thought, in the sense that many of the architecture had been adapted to the guiding the interaction of these forces:
architect's ideas, in particular on the ori varying times and places without chang the fitness of content or Inhalts
gins of art and its relations with ritual, ing its essence. Instead it became a pro angemessenheit, which arises when these
religious festival, and carnival, prefig ject closely allied to the new discipline of forces interact harmoniously, making the
ured, and probably influenced, Nie anthropology, in that it investigated all whole appear as a unity of purpose or
tzsche's The Birth of Greek Tragedy human artifacts, not just the fine art pro Zweckeinheit. The aim (or telos, to use the
(1871). Hvattum identifies Aristotle's duced in Europe, and studied it in the Aristotelian term) of an artifact or work
Poetics as a key text for Semper, and context of ritual rather than aesthetic of art is to appear as a purposive, ideo
locates Semper's thought solidly in the
value. Hvattum also shows that Semper logical unity, that is, one in which all
German philosophical tradition from redefined the mechanism of change in parts appear to be based on an underly
Johann Gottfried Herder and Immanuel architectural history. Whereas classical ing idea of a purposive whole.
Kant to Wilhelm Dilthey. and neoclassical doctrine had presented Hvattum here offers a very clear
Gottfried Semper and the Problem of imitation as the means through which analysis of what is still a neglected and
Historicism is not another study charting the classical tradition was kept alive and badly understood part of Semper's
Semper's development as an architect or passed on to new generations, Semper thought?his theory of formal beauty
theorist, and does not try to relate his redefined imitation as Aristotelian mime (?Theorie des Formell-Sch?nen) which he
designs to his ideas. Instead the focus is sis: the representation of significant presented to the public in a relatively
entirely on the cluster of issues that human action. In the case of architecture accessible lecture in 1856 in Zurich,
drove his thought, from his early writ these were not, as in Aristotle's Poetics, "?ber die formelle Gesetzm?ssigkeit des
ings on the Universal Exhibition and the the dramatic plots of Greek mythology, Schmuckes und dessen Bedeutung als
four basic elements of architecture to his but the four basic crafts connected with Kunstsymbol" (On the formal laws of
abortive attempts to finish the third part the four elements that formed the origin ornament and its significance as an artis
of Der Stil, which was to be devoted to of human society: the hearth, the earth tic symbol). He also began to write a

136 JSAH / 65:1, MARCH 2006

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monograph on formal beauty, but never
completed it.1 Part of what makes this
theory so obscure, Hvattum argues, is
that Semper used the terminology Aris
totle used to define what distinguishes
living organisms from dead matter.
According to the philosopher, they are
organic unities structured so that the
parts can fulfill a purpose that existed as
telos or form shaping matter before the
organism itself came into being. But
Semper then used this ideological ter
minology, which is about the purposes and
functions of organisms or artifacts, to talk
about the formal properties of artifacts.
In doing so, he removed the artwork
from the real world of purposes, func
tions, and uses. This caused him an
insoluble problem that would return in
various forms throughout his life:
whereas his analysis of the historical
development of art aimed to set out the
rationale for change in terms of politi
cal, cultural, and material factors, it in
fact concentrates entirely on formal
aspects. Or, put slightly differentiy, Sem
per's transformation of the Aristotelian
and Kantian analysis of organisms and works, buildings, and artifacts, of which on the lawfulness underlying history;
artifacts in relation to fitness for purpose he was such a subtle and eloquent ana
into a language of formal analysis con
tributed greatly toward the status of art
works as autonomous microcosms obey ing. In part three, "The Aporias of His
ing their own organic principles of figu
ration. At the same time, it separated
them completely from the endeavors,
desires, and needs of human reality.
Architectural history thus was for
Semper the history of the gradual repre
sentation, that is, spiritualization of the
four original crafts. It was therefore still
a mimesis or representation of a praxis
(weaving, carpentry, pottery, and so
forth), but at its highest level (for
instance, in Greek architecture of the
Periclean age) it had become a purely
formal symbolization of these crafts.
The theory of formal beauty may be
hard to grasp, but is essential to under
stand, because it provides the conceptual
basis for Semper's theory of style. As is
well known, he defined style in a "math
ematical formula"?U = C (x, y, z, t, v,
w... )?where U stands for the result of
the function: the work of art, or rather,
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the style that unites individual works of or Geschichten but history, die Geschichte,
art into a coherent cultural phenome a set of inner causal connections, or the
non; C, the functional expression, is the "form which adheres to events rather
"mathematical" expression of the rela than through the events themselves."2 A
tionship between the coefficients, com generation before Humboldt, Herder
prising all aspects that could affect the had described history in this general
work of art, building, or craft. These sense as a living whole, "the fermenta
variables stand for both the elements tion of human powers." Through the use
present in the work (its purpose, mater of the organic metaphor Herder could
ial, and technical aspects) and the exter unite two opposing phenomena into one
nal elements that influence its genesis, view of history: on the one hand, the
including climate, topography, political, individuality of each event, person, gen
social, and religious institutions, histor eration, or era; on the other, the absolute
ical memories, and traditions. Hvattum lawfulness that guided the organic whole
does not belabor this point, but this def of history. This philosophy of history
inition of style is a bad case of scientism: was taken over by the historians
it is pseudo-mathematics, because the Friedrich Meinecke and Ernst Troeltsch,
variables are not clearly and unequivo who defined historicism as the "histori
cally defined, and, more fatal, the nature cizing of our knowing and experienc
of the function, that is, of the operation ing": for the nineteenth century, history
referred to as C, and the relation was to be the key to all understanding of
between the variables is not defined. the past and present. As Hvattum puts it:
But this is not an isolated instance "Historicism implies a view of history as
of formalizing knowledge that went too an organic whole, complete in itself, yet
far. It is symptomatic of the larger fail evolving according to (potentially) com
ure in Semper's work: to forge a connec prehensible laws" (165). French posi
tion between the formal properties of art tivists like Auguste Comte concentrated
Herder and his followers decided to
lyst, and the social, political, and cultural stress the uniqueness of each nation and
conditions that surrounded their mak period.
This historicism also informed the
toricism," Hvattum offers what is to date nineteenth-century struggle for style.
philosophically the most sophisticated While it was understood that the devel
analysis of this failure. Its clearest symp opment of architectural styles was gov
tom was his incapacity to finish the final erned by the same laws that guided all of
part of Der Stil. But as Hvattum shows, human history and society, at the same
this failure was only the logical conse time, each period, art, and nation was
quence of the paradox underlying Sem singular and therefore had to develop its
per's thought: he started from the own style. Reusing styles of the past was
conviction that architecture should free therefore profoundly ahistorical and, in
itself from the confused and irrational the historicist sense, irrational. Consid
uses of styles from the past; instead, ered from this historicist perspective,
architectural aesthetics and design Semper's theoretical work becomes both
should be put on a scientific basis. But understandable and flawed. His search
the scientific foundation he chose was for the laws underlying artistic formal
that of historicism: the conviction, first development is very similar to the work
formulated in a wide, anthropological of Humboldt or Dilthey in history, or
sense by Wilhelm von Humboldt, that that of Comte in sociology. But his
history is not the narration of a collec efforts to put these historical investiga
tion of concrete examples that guided tions to practical use, in accordance with
man's ethical and political conduct?his his practical aesthetics or aesthetics of
toria magistra vitae?but an abstract pure form, were doomed, because he
unity: no longer a collection of histories had considered only formal aspects of
BOOKS 137
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development, but could not relate form gles to understand him: what Hvattum nates the complex issue of the relations
to content. calls the "curious compression of mean between philosophical and architectural
This formalism or "compression of ing." His pioneering and acute studies of thought on history, the organic in life
meaning," Hvattum argues, is the con Assyrian reliefs, for instance, are much and art, and style. She does not posit
sequence of Semper's decision, shared by more conspicuous for what they leave easy influences or exchanges, but instead
so many of his contemporary historicists, out than for what they include: he has shown how problematic the influ
to allow considerations of method to devotes much time to formal analysis, ence of Kant's arguments for art as an
prevail over those of content. The but none at all to the visual narrative or autonomous realm and the experience of
organic analogy, in which history is seen the situation in which it was produced beauty as a disinterested enjoyment of
as an independent organism obeying its and functioned. formal beauty turned out to be for the
own laws, suggested to historicists a par Hvattum succeeds very well in her artists who were influenced by his ideas.
ticular methodology, that of comparative exposure of the conceptual flaws leading Second, she has managed to relate Sem
analysis. In a very illuminating chapter, to this compression of meaning, and in per's search for a scientific history of art
Hvattum shows how linguists and biolo reconstructing the intellectual develop and a practical aesthetics to the wider
gists both redefined the object of their ments of which Semper was a part. Par issues determining nineteenth-century
study as independent wholes, subject to ticularly clear are the ways she shows how European thought about artistic design,
their own laws, in the way Humboldt did he depended on the Poetics only to trans art history, and aesthetics. Michael
for history. Georges Cuvier implied that form it into something very different, and Podro argued in The Critical Historians of
an animal organ or an entire animal can her valuable examination of the histori Art (New Haven and London, 1982)
be defined exclusively in relation to cist aspects of his work. One minor quib that the development of German art his
other organs and animals in a compara ble here is that in her discussion of Karl tory and Kunstwissenschaft was deter
tive matrix. Early comparative linguistics B?tticher, in many respects an important mined in large part by the debate
aimed to demonstrate the family rela though not always acknowledged precur between two competing groups of intel
tionships between languages and trace sor of Semper, she does not mention the lectuals: those who, following Kant and
the transformation of individual words. Aristotelian background to his thought. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, saw art
Both disciplines studied their object as In Die Tektonik der Hellenen, B?tticher and its history as the supreme manifes
independent, formal patterns, indepen drew on the Poetics when he described art tation of the human mind, and the his
dent of the wider world. The similarity forms (Kunstformen) as imitations (mime tory of art as the history of the mind's
to Semper's historical investigations is seis) of appearances, representing and development; and those who advocated a
striking, but by showing how his work expressing the work forms (Werkformen) much more down-to-earth, archival his
relates to these comparative historicist or invisible mechanical and static forces tory of art based on documents. Hegel,
research programs in biology and lin at work in a building. Their use is not a Karl Schnaase, and Erwin Panofsky
guistics, Hvattum also makes clear how matter of artistic license or the passive belonged to the first group; Friedrich
the decision to employ a comparative copying of natural forms, but of what von Rumohr and Franz Kugler, the
historical analysis made it impossible for B?tticher, again referring to Aristotle, author of the first handbook of architec
Semper both to move beyond formal called anagke, or necessity, one based on tural history, to the second. Hvattum,
analysis to integrate content and signifi purposive unity.3 Interestingly, B?tticher however, shows that this debate was not
cance into his equations, and to tran silendy substituted mimesis ton phainome limited to art historians, but also affected
scend his own historical horizon as an non (representation of appearances) for artists such as Semper.
architect. Aristode's mimesis tespraxeos (representa The result is a book that uses criti
By taking a systematic and critical tion of action), thus preparing Semper's cal analysis to demonstrate the ongoing
stance toward Semper's theoretical work, crucial and fateful move away from sig importance of Semper's attempts to deal
Hvattum has added significandy to our nificant human action and its representa with issues that are still relevant to archi
understanding of his thought. Where tion as the focus of artistic theory toward tecture: how to position contemporary
Mallgrave chose the biography, in itself a a historical and historicist analysis of pat design in relation to history; how to
genre with historicist associations, as a terns of formal development. develop a conceptual apparatus to ana
key to understanding Semper and Precisely because of its tight and lyze its development through all ages
thereby was very successful in showing well-argued focus, Gottfried Semper and and cultures without drowning in ency
the evolution and integrity of his work, the Problem of Historicism is much more clopaedic collections of material, and in
Hvattum takes the perspective of the than yet another book on Semper. Hvat such a way that designers can profit from
(exceedingly well-informed) outsider tum has identified, reconstructed, and it; and how to reconcile the desire for the
and straightforwardly confronts the diagnosed the issue that flawed Semper's autonomy of art and the aesthetic expe
main issue that has dogged Semper stud thought. In doing so, she has also suc rience with the public and useful aspects
ies?and indeed every reader who strug ceeded on two fronts. First, she illumi of architecture. Another interesting

138 JSAH / 65:1, MARCH 2006

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aspect is Hvattum's contribution to the structive, and personal to each student."1 sources. The research is admirably com
reappraisal of the significance of Aristo While Sullivan protested the conventions plete, even if Thomine's presentation of
tle's thought for the visual arts that of academic training, he confessed that he the evidence poses some challenges: the
began with David Summers's The Judge "had familiarized himself thoroughly with strictly chronological narrative frag
ment of Sense (Cambridge, England, and the theory" of the ?cole des Beaux-Arts ments continuous aspects of Vau
London, 1987), but until now seldom by the time he returned to Chicago in dremer's practice into discontinuous
extended into the nineteenth century. 1875, where thirteen years later he passed events; the conversely thematic and
Hvattum's book is obviously the fruit of on this knowledge to his apprentice, typological bibliography forces the
many years of research and thought, but Frank Lloyd Wright.2 Outside these few reader to hunt for references under mul

it wears its learning lighdy. It is sophis works and anecdotal associations, how tiple headings; and the restriction of
ticated, succinct, and crisply written. A ever, the full story of Vaudremer's career footnotes to nineteenth-century cita
splendid achievement. as a prolific official architect of the Sec tions (with rare exceptions) leaves one
CAROLINE VAN ECK ond Empire and Third Republic, who guessing about Thomine's specific debts
University of Groningen, the Netherlands/remained active from middle of the nine to the current literature.
University of Ghent, Belgium teenth century to the eve of World War I, The son of a minor government
has been left untold. functionary, Vaudremer was destined for
Notes Alice Thomine's new biography of public service by his training at the Ecole
1. The lecture was published posthumously in Hans des Beaux-Arts from 1847 to 1854, first
Vaudremer therefore fills an important
and Manfred Semper, eds., Gottfried Semper. Kleine
gap in our understanding of both French as a student of Abel Blouet and then, on
Schriften (Berlin and Stuttgart, 1884; repr. Mitten
and American architecture. It originated Blouet's death in 1853, as a student of
wald, 1979), 304-^4-3; an unpublished manuscript of
Emile Gilbert. Granted a second Prix de
the projected monograph is kept in the Semperas a doctoral dissertation completed in
Archive at the ETH in Zurich (MS 168-81). 1994 under the direction of Jean-Michel Rome in 1854, after his winning project
2. Wilhelm von Humboldt, "On the Task of theLeniaud, and is indebted in its method for an imperial sepulcher was controver
Historian," trans. H. P. Rickman, in Kurt Muellerology and exhaustive archival research sially overturned in favor of Emile Bon
Vollmer, ed., The Hermeneutics Reader: Texts of the
both to her advisor's 1980 study of the net's rival project, Vaudremer spent four
German Tradition from the Enlightenment to the Pre
Gothicist Jean-Baptiste Lassus, and to an years in Rome, sending back in 1857 a
sent (Oxford, 1984), 105; quoted by Hvattum (163).
3. Karl G. W. B?tticher, Die Tektonik der Hellenen entire generation of monographs by restoration project or envoi of the Mau
(1844/52; Berlin, 1874), 34. In his Poetics,French and American scholars: starting soleum of Hadrian.4 In 1860, Vaudremer
with Neil Levine's 1975 dissertation
1450al5-b4, Aristotle discusses the mimesis of became a municipal architect for the
actions. on the Romantic architect Henri 13 th and 14th districts of Paris in
Labrouste, these have collectively sought Georges-Eug?ne Haussmann's newly
to ground the history of nineteenth-cen reorganized Architectural Service of the
Alice Thomine tury French architecture in carefully Prefecture of the Seine. As Thomine
?mile Vaudremer, 1829-1914. La documented lives and works of its most observes, this appointment was really
rigueur de l'architecture publique prominent practitioners.3 But where due to Victor Baltard, for whom Vau
Paris: Picard, 2004, 382 pp., 23 color and 88 many of those architects left behind dremer had worked briefly in 1853-54,
b/w illus. 54 (paper), ISBN 2-7084-0630-2 extensive records of their careers, Vau and who in 1860 became director of the
dremer was an intensely private individ Architectural Service. It led to commis
Joseph-Auguste-Emile Vaudremer is a ual who, despite his public positions, sions for St.-Pierre-de-Montrouge, one
familiar yet paradoxically unknown figure kept mostly silent about his ideas and of eight churches built in eclectically
of nineteenth-century French architec intentions. Consequently, Thomine has medieval to Renaissance styles during
ture. He has enjoyed an enduring reputa had to recover this architect indirectly, the 1860s to serve the new districts cre
tion, primarily for two early works in mining official documents in archives ated by Haussmann's urban transforma
Paris?the neo-Romanesque church of along with publications for "traces of his tion of Paris, and the Sant? Prison, a
St.-Pierre-de-Montrouge (1863-67) and activity" (29). Organizing her story work of utilitarian classicism indebted to
the austere Sant? Prison (1864-67)?and chronologically rather than thematically Gilbert and informed by a program of
for his indirect contribution to the origins into chapters that follow Vaudremer penal reform imported from the United
of American organic architecture: Vau decade by decade, Thomine backs up States by Blouet, among others. Around
dremer was the atelier master with whom her narrative with a meticulous cata the same time (probably 1863), Vau
Louis Sullivan studied in 1874 while logue of every built work by the archi dremer opened the atelier he ran until
enrolled at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts. Sul tect, a biographical dictionary of his 1881 (when Gustave Raulin took it
livan remembered Vaudremer as a "disci collaborators, a comprehensive table of over). Founded on the principle of "Lib
plinarian," though one whose calm his atelier students, and a thorough bib erty and rationalism, eclecticism in the
criticisms were "clear, clean-cut, con liography of primary and secondary best sense of the term," the studio was

BOOKS 139

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